I've spent about five hours in it. So, far I think it's fairly boring. It's awesome that it's very polished but this thing is no WoW killer. And I gave up on WoW a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away. It's going to have to take a bit more... creativity to pull this MMO thong off.

Don't mind me though, I am sure Bioware will not have no problem being extremely successful and well into the future with this.

Though, if they add a major/major/major Freespace/Privateer element. I'd be subbed for life.

There's also the issue of faction-less PvP - Huttball can comprise of Republic V Sith, Sith v Sith, and Republic v Republic matches - Somewhat eliminating the problem of factional balance, you may be facing a friend or guildie in a Huttball match.

It's interesting to watch the concerns that some people raised on this forum being addressed so immediately by Bioware. Over the last week we heard that there was no long term content strategy, and yet new content was announced for next month a few days ago. We'll see in 30 days as to how many of these subs stick, but I think the inclusion of 8 fully voiced story lines has bought and paid for the interest of many of those who have paid in. I could be wrong, mind you, that's just my gut instinct and is not meant as a prediction. More of a hope, really; I like to see people succeed.

Fion wrote on Dec 24, 2011, 11:15:550'000 Sith Warriors to 510'00 Jedi Knights seems pretty balanced to me. The PvP (from what I've experienced) is pretty balanced as well. I play Republic side and win about half our matches. It's more than I can say for that other MMOG that has yet to find balance in almost 7 years.

Well, unfortunately that might change in the future. Having played almost every PvP related MMO over the last 15 years, I've noticed a phenomenon. It's called "join the winning team", and it might be human nature. Once one side starts winning more than the other, even if it's 51/49, people who want to win start switching to the winning side. Then it becomes 52/48, 60/40, 65/35, until it's unbalanced. You see the phenomenon outside of gaming too, with people suddenly being "huge fans" of whichever sport's team is good that year, etc. Might be premature to call the PvP in this game "balanced".

The most balanced PvP games I've seen were ones where there were more than two factions, as then the weaker factions team up to defeat the strongest. Planetside with three sides, Dark Age of Camelot with three sides, etc. In my opinion if there are only two sides, Horde/Alliance, Sith/Jedi, it will NEVER be balanced.

This point is exactly right. Two sided pvp never works because of the above reasons. If you want to play SWTOR for pvp you better do it now because the servers will be empty in 6 months.

There are many ways to make two-sided pvp work...you can instance things and ensure the numbers are equal, you can modify combat values to "handicap" the less popular side (and even automate the handicapping), you can have mirrored classes on both sides, to reduce the inherent appeal/power of unique classes (not my own choice of approach, but it can work).

Fion wrote on Dec 24, 2011, 11:15:550'000 Sith Warriors to 510'00 Jedi Knights seems pretty balanced to me. The PvP (from what I've experienced) is pretty balanced as well. I play Republic side and win about half our matches. It's more than I can say for that other MMOG that has yet to find balance in almost 7 years.

Well, unfortunately that might change in the future. Having played almost every PvP related MMO over the last 15 years, I've noticed a phenomenon. It's called "join the winning team", and it might be human nature. Once one side starts winning more than the other, even if it's 51/49, people who want to win start switching to the winning side. Then it becomes 52/48, 60/40, 65/35, until it's unbalanced. You see the phenomenon outside of gaming too, with people suddenly being "huge fans" of whichever sport's team is good that year, etc. Might be premature to call the PvP in this game "balanced".

The most balanced PvP games I've seen were ones where there were more than two factions, as then the weaker factions team up to defeat the strongest. Planetside with three sides, Dark Age of Camelot with three sides, etc. In my opinion if there are only two sides, Horde/Alliance, Sith/Jedi, it will NEVER be balanced.

SWTOR may suffer less from the faction issues as well because each side has virtual the same classes with very minor differences.

Factionless MMOGs as well can be balanced. GW2 PvP rocks partly because there are no factions with their own classes to unbalance things or a 'winning team'. It comes down to skill, your guild of choice and your specific team. WvWvW may be less balanced because it's server vs server, but it is meant more to be a casual experience, so balance isn't the goal. WvWvW combines PvE, Dynamic Events, guild conquest and PvP all in one big, relatively unbalanced, two week playfield.

When I started to beta this, I was not aware that you would get a companion and worked on the Sith side. I found myself paying attention to whether Vette would get pissed or like what I was doing. Not normal for Darth Vader but that does not mean it cannot be that way....It's passion that drives the dark side of the force. Kinda like capitalism... where as the Jedi are hippie commies...I think.

-------------------------------------------3 billion+ men in the world and my sisters keep going back to the idiots...

Fion wrote on Dec 24, 2011, 11:15:550'000 Sith Warriors to 510'00 Jedi Knights seems pretty balanced to me. The PvP (from what I've experienced) is pretty balanced as well. I play Republic side and win about half our matches. It's more than I can say for that other MMOG that has yet to find balance in almost 7 years.

Well, unfortunately that might change in the future. Having played almost every PvP related MMO over the last 15 years, I've noticed a phenomenon. It's called "join the winning team", and it might be human nature. Once one side starts winning more than the other, even if it's 51/49, people who want to win start switching to the winning side. Then it becomes 52/48, 60/40, 65/35, until it's unbalanced. You see the phenomenon outside of gaming too, with people suddenly being "huge fans" of whichever sport's team is good that year, etc. Might be premature to call the PvP in this game "balanced".

The most balanced PvP games I've seen were ones where there were more than two factions, as then the weaker factions team up to defeat the strongest. Planetside with three sides, Dark Age of Camelot with three sides, etc. In my opinion if there are only two sides, Horde/Alliance, Sith/Jedi, it will NEVER be balanced.

This point is exactly right. Two sided pvp never works because of the above reasons. If you want to play SWTOR for pvp you better do it now because the servers will be empty in 6 months.

Since when did you become a psychic? I guess you broke out your magic crystal ball and it told you that the game will be dead and gone in 6 months? Since you seem to know so much how about you tell me next week’s lotto numbers?

Speaking of which, there's one very nice quest in the SI line where you shock some poor bugger repeatedly until he caves, and your character comments, "don't worry, I know when to stop." My only real complaint on the LS/DS choices, is that sometimes what you think are really dark, aren't considered actually dark.

--"For every human problem, there is a neat, simple solution; and it is always wrong." --H.L. Mencken

Fion wrote on Dec 24, 2011, 11:15:550'000 Sith Warriors to 510'00 Jedi Knights seems pretty balanced to me. The PvP (from what I've experienced) is pretty balanced as well. I play Republic side and win about half our matches. It's more than I can say for that other MMOG that has yet to find balance in almost 7 years.

Well, unfortunately that might change in the future. Having played almost every PvP related MMO over the last 15 years, I've noticed a phenomenon. It's called "join the winning team", and it might be human nature. Once one side starts winning more than the other, even if it's 51/49, people who want to win start switching to the winning side. Then it becomes 52/48, 60/40, 65/35, until it's unbalanced. You see the phenomenon outside of gaming too, with people suddenly being "huge fans" of whichever sport's team is good that year, etc. Might be premature to call the PvP in this game "balanced".

The most balanced PvP games I've seen were ones where there were more than two factions, as then the weaker factions team up to defeat the strongest. Planetside with three sides, Dark Age of Camelot with three sides, etc. In my opinion if there are only two sides, Horde/Alliance, Sith/Jedi, it will NEVER be balanced.

This point is exactly right. Two sided pvp never works because of the above reasons. If you want to play SWTOR for pvp you better do it now because the servers will be empty in 6 months.

Creston wrote on Dec 24, 2011, 15:06:Getting more and more tempted to just buy this...Creston

Its worth buying for any fan of KOTOR fan, even if all you do is play through the classes that interest you most just to see what they have done with the story.

Yeah and that's likely how I'll wind up playing it. I really need to see how it works on my crappy internet connection before I splurge 60 bucks though. Does anyone happen to know the name of one of the (US) TOR servers, so I can see what my ping to it is?

I'd rather see the amassed dark side points vs the amassed light side points than sith vs jedi. Jedi can walk down the dark side and sith can walk down the light side you know. Not to mention leaving out half of the classes who are not force users.

John is correct. Besides look at what they're saying. These are toons that people have only dabbled with. What are the stats for people's main chars? What's the most played side and race/class combos afer the first week of pre-launch? That's the stuff that people want to see.

"We choose the right to be who we are. We know the difference between the reality of freedom and the illusion of freedom."

Fion wrote on Dec 24, 2011, 11:15:550'000 Sith Warriors to 510'00 Jedi Knights seems pretty balanced to me. The PvP (from what I've experienced) is pretty balanced as well. I play Republic side and win about half our matches. It's more than I can say for that other MMOG that has yet to find balance in almost 7 years.

Well, unfortunately that might change in the future. Having played almost every PvP related MMO over the last 15 years, I've noticed a phenomenon. It's called "join the winning team", and it might be human nature. Once one side starts winning more than the other, even if it's 51/49, people who want to win start switching to the winning side. Then it becomes 52/48, 60/40, 65/35, until it's unbalanced. You see the phenomenon outside of gaming too, with people suddenly being "huge fans" of whichever sport's team is good that year, etc. Might be premature to call the PvP in this game "balanced".

The most balanced PvP games I've seen were ones where there were more than two factions, as then the weaker factions team up to defeat the strongest. Planetside with three sides, Dark Age of Camelot with three sides, etc. In my opinion if there are only two sides, Horde/Alliance, Sith/Jedi, it will NEVER be balanced.

550'000 Sith Warriors to 510'00 Jedi Knights seems pretty balanced to me. The PvP (from what I've experienced) is pretty balanced as well. I play Republic side and win about half our matches. It's more than I can say for that other MMOG that has yet to find balance in almost 7 years.